


Absence makes the heart grow fonder

by laheysmythes



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: BOTH OF THEM ARE TOO STUBBORN, Deadpan humor, Denial of Feelings, M/M, a bet is involved, having to be apart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-24
Packaged: 2018-12-30 21:44:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12117837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laheysmythes/pseuds/laheysmythes
Summary: “I bet you two couldn’t last a week away from each other,” Stiles challenged, a certain gleam in his eye at the idea of them struggling to be apart but failing.“Theo and I can be away from each other for a week easily,” Liam stated. “In fact, I won’t even notice that he’s gone, it would be such a relief to have a couple of days without a pain in the ass.”“Likewise. I do have a lot of things to do other than to just hang around with some loser like you,” Theo retorted back, full offense intended, and justifiable after what Liam had said.Or alternatively, the one where both Theo and Liam are in denial about how much time they spend with each other, and bet that they can succeed in being apart for a week.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've been having this idea on my mind all week and I started writing it at night one day, then carefully outlined it all, but realized it was going to end up being too long, so multichapter it is. 
> 
> Honestly it was bound to happen, I wonder how people haven't pointed it out yet because they seem to be always together, so here is my take on these two and their denial issues with one another.

There’s a saying that if you spend most of your time with someone, it becomes a habit enough that you notice when they’re gone and you miss them,  _ a lot.  _ Sometimes it happens gradually, sometimes it is there in a short amount of time, but sooner or later you have to notice it.

Theo and Liam believed they were the exception to the rule. Everyone around them couldn’t help but notice the insane amount of time they spent with each other, almost as if they were attached to the hip. Everyone except for them, because when you’re too deep in denial, or probably obliviousness to your own feelings, you don’t notice it.

It carried on for months, no one in the rest of the pack had said a word, just exchanged knowing uncomfortable glances with each other. That’s until one day Theo arrived to a pack meeting without Liam at his side.

“You’re late,” Stiles exclaimed with so little tolerance he had for Theo. He truly hated his guts, so any chance he had at making a snide remark, he’d take it.

“Where’s your angry wonder-twin?” Jackson snarked. “Aren’t you two losers always together?”

Theo sighed angrily. He did not like this Jackson guy at all. How many more days is he going to stay here?

“How the hell should I know? Liam is his own person, how would I possibly know what he is doing,” Theo spat back, unbelievably offended that they had suggested that he had nothing else to do other than being Liam’s personal babysitter.

A couple of seconds later, Liam burst into the room, opening the door with a little more force than required. His hair disheveled, he reeked of sweat - a sign he had been running - and was a little bit too irritated, directing a murderous glance at Theo.

“There you have him, unharmed,” Theo sarcastically said back to both Stiles and Jackson. Scott and Lydia just rolled their eyes. This was going to be a long meeting.

“Unharmed? I had to run all the way here from my house just because you left me there!” Liam yelled at Theo, who just rolled his eyes.

“You were taking forever, I wasn’t going to wait for you,” Theo said, completely unbothered.

“And why was I taking forever? Oh yeah, right! Because  _ someone  _ ate all the granola bars left, may I add they were 20, in the span of  _ two days _ , and I was the one who got yelled at because my mom thought I was on steroids or something- stop laughing, you asshole!” Liam punched Theo in the arm, who had been laughing in a of-course-yes-I-was-responsible kind of way. “Who the hell eats that many granola bars in the span of two days anyway?!”

“Guys! We need to focus here!” Scott sounded tired more than anything. It wasn’t the first time Theo and Liam had gone off topic in some rambling of their own, and it certainly wasn’t going to be the last.

“I’m sorry Scott, just excuse me one second, but,” Stiles interrupted Scott, too intrigued with Liam and Theo all of a sudden. “When was the last time you two spent days apart from each other?”

“What do you mean ‘apart’? We’re almost never together,” Liam scoffed. He mimicked the same sense of offense that Theo had before he arrived. Stiles chuckled.

“Can’t believe I’m gonna agree with Stilinski on this but during all my stay at Beacon Hills I’ve never seen you two away from each other,” Jackson chimed in. “Hell, it took me two weeks to learn each of your names properly because what was the point.”

“It’s just ridiculous at this point,” Stiles put a hand on his lips, as if to suggest he was thinking. Theo and Liam glanced at each other awkwardly, as if all of a sudden they were heavily noticing the other’s presence once they had been called out.

“Not even Ethan and I spend this much time together, he’s in London right now, and we’ve been dating for over  _ a year, _ ” Jackson added, and Stiles nodded, laughing like he just got an idea.

“I bet you two couldn’t last a week away from each other,” Stiles challenged, a certain gleam in his eye at the idea of them struggling to be apart but failing.

“They wouldn’t even last a day,” Malia added in the background, getting some angry ‘Hey!’s from both Theo and Liam. Everyone started to talk all at once, until Liam yelled to get everyone’s attention.

“Theo and I can be away from each other for a week easily,” Liam stated. “In fact, I won’t even notice that he’s gone, it would be such a relief to have a couple of days without a pain in the ass.”

“Likewise. I do have a lot of things to do other than to just hang around with some loser like you,” Theo retorted back, full offense intended, and justifiable after what Liam had said.

Everyone was silent for a minute. “Five bucks says they won’t make it through the week,” Stiles pulled a $5 bill and slammed it on top of the steel table.

Jackson followed with a $20 bill. “I’m feeling confident on the odds of winning.”

Malia pulled a $5 in favor of them losing, Mason put a $5 (and convinced Corey to do the same) in favor of them winning. Scott and Lydia decided to not take part in.

“Alright, it’s settled then, winner takes it all, along with the privilege to rub it in the loser team’s faces,” Stiles gathered the money and put it in an empty spare cricket box that Dr. Deaton had nearby.

Liam looked once more at Theo and proceeded to go sit on a stool located across the room, far away from Theo.

Scott sighed once more. It was going to be a long week.


	2. Day 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm overwhelmed with the response this fic is getting! I wanna thank each one of you that left kudos and comments, I really appreciate y'all caring and wanting to read more. 
> 
> With that said, this chapter was supposed to be posted yesterday, but school got in the way, but anyways, here's the next chapter :D

**DAY 1**

Liam woke up to a ray of sun entering his window, shining down on his face. He groaned and rolled around in the bed, moving opposite of the window. He hadn’t been able to sleep that well for some unknown reason, and he’d be damned if something like the sun would wake him up on a Saturd-

_ It’s Monday,  _ something in his brain reminded Liam.  _ School.  _

Slowly, he opened his eyes to look at his alarm on the nightstand, but found it empty. Narrowing his eyes, he looked down at the floor and found the discarded alarm clock next to his bed, and it read 10:30 with bright red numbers.

_ Shit,  _ Liam thought as he quickly got up from his bed. He was three hours late already, and he hadn’t showered, he hadn't eaten breakfast, nor even completed all of his homework. His parents weren’t home for the week, so there hadn’t been anyone to remind him. But even then, Theo used to wake him up when he slept through all of his alarms because he always woke up earlier. Sometimes, he even took joy in annoying Liam and got creative by spraying him with water, throwing pillows at him until he woke up, or even sometimes by pulling the covers off him until Liam rolled down the bed and landed on the floor.

One day, Theo got creative enough as to lie down next to Liam, so when the younger boy turned around in his bed he bumped into muscle, which made him open his eyes, disconcerted. And there was Theo, with a huge smirk on his face, greeting him  _ ‘Morning, sunshine’,  _ and proceeded to laugh for minutes as Liam jumped to the other side of the room in a matter of seconds, yelling at the top of his lungs. Theo wouldn’t let Liam live down his reaction for the rest of the day, and Liam locked him out of the house as payback. 

So if Theo was always his annoying self in the mornings, why hadn’t he-

_ Oh, because he’s gone,  _ Liam also reminded himself, since he had forgotten apparently. He furrowed his brows. Something about Theo not being here unsettled him. It’s like he-

_ No, you do NOT miss him,  _ Liam thought to himself, shrugging off the thought, and went to gather some clothes to take a shower. 

___

All buses were gone, obviously, and there was no one who could pick him up to drive him to school. Theo would’ve given him a ride, since he had nothing else to do really, but alas, he was not at Liam’s house. 

Liam walked to school and made it just in time for the 11:30 class, but when he got there he was all sweaty, annoyed, and got some worried looks from both Mason and Corey.

“Dude, where were you all morning? We had started to get worried,” Mason asked Liam, concern in his face.

“I slept through my alarm,” Liam muttered, crossing his arms and sinking further into his seat. He had no desire to pay attention to class that day, and he couldn’t wait for class to be over.

He kept telling himself over and over again that he didn’t miss Theo. He kept telling himself that during lunch when he was feeling like the third wheel between Mason and Corey, and there was nobody texting him.

He kept telling himself that he didn’t miss him as he took 30 minutes to walk back home because he was the last one to leave lacrosse practice and once again there was nobody that would give him a ride home.

He kept telling himself he didn’t miss him as he arrived to an empty home, with no one he could rant to about his shitty day, and no one he could pettily fight with to make him feel a bit better.

He went to sleep as soon as he finished his homework, which was somewhere close to 9 o’clock. He hoped he wouldn’t sleep through his alarm again.

\---

Theo hadn’t had a great start to his week either. Once again, he was back at sleeping in his truck. He had been staying in Liam’s room in a makeshift bed, which genuinely was way better than sleeping all cramped up in the backseat of his truck.

He hadn’t gotten a decent good night’s sleep either since cops kept waking him up by knocking on his window, telling him he couldn’t sleep in his car and he had to find somewhere else to go. He sighed every time, but did as he was told anyway.

He was woken up by the sun streaming through his passenger window, the weather feeling warmer than most days. A little bit cranky, he turned the ignition on and drove around, trying to find a cheap place to eat breakfast. 

He didn’t have a job, and since he had been living at Liam’s, he had been getting his food for free. Right now, he barely had $5 and change to spare for today’s breakfast. He ordered the cheapest thing he could find on the menu and a glass of water, which thankfully was free.

If all else fails, he could return to living off of the dollar menu and unlimited water. It was the cheapest thing he could afford. But he wouldn’t get to that point since it was just a week, right?

_ Right, and after that week Liam will probably realize how much of a pain in the ass you are and will kick you out of his house,  _ his conscience thought. Sometimes Theo really hated being alone with his thoughts, because he was his own worst enemy.

It was a lazy day after that, he tried to not waste much energy so he wouldn’t get hungry that quickly, and also tried to save up on gas, since he didn't know when he'll be able to get money to refill the tank. He parked nearby the woods, in a place where not many cops were around to bother him during the day, and simply sat there in silence for minutes. 

After a while, he sighed. _What exactly was he supposed to do now?_  There was no evil plan he had to orchestrate, no threat in Beacon Hills he had to run from,  _ nothing.  _ He felt like in a way it was easier for there to be some kind of problem, because at least that way he’d had something to do.

Before when he was with the Dread Doctors, he had spent most of his time alone, but planning. He had also spent most of his time studying how other people behaved. Most people in their free time would hang out with friends or family. Given that the latter option was not even remotely possible, he went for the former. 

He pulled out his phone and went to his contact list… to find out he only had two saved phone numbers. Scott’s phone number, and Liam’s.

_ Liam.  _

Talking to Liam was easier, it felt like something natural. Sometimes they could go on for hours talking about the most irrelevant things in the world, and it wouldn’t feel forced at all. Theo wasn’t one to enjoy having conversations with other people unless he needed something, but with Liam it was different. It was enjoyable. There were times when Liam would go explaining history fun facts after an interesting day in History class, and Theo would just quietly listen, admiring how passionate Liam was about the topic. 

Theo felt a sudden pang of pain in his chest.  _ Maybe you do miss him _ , the voice in his head pointed out at him.

_ Maybe I do miss… annoying him,  _ he tried his best to change his train of thoughts until he ended up with this and smirked to himself. Most of his life, he had avoided dealing with any kind of feeling he had - ranging from guilt to sadness - so it wouldn't be an inconvenience. This, he could deal with.

\---

A little bit after midnight, Theo was parking his truck a couple houses down from Liam’s. He calmly made his way to Liam’s house, a duffel bag in one hand, his phone in the other. It was a nice neighborhood, really peaceful, no disturbances, which is a lot to ask from a city like Beacon Hills.

Now, Theo wasn’t exactly breaking and entering into Liam’s house - even though literally, he was - but he wouldn’t call it that. It’s not like he had been  _ banned  _ from ever going into the house again, he just couldn’t interact with Liam or they’d lose the bet. They never said anything about the house.

He had known Liam’s parents would be out of town the entire week on a trip, so he only had to bother with not waking up Liam. He jumped the fence and got into the backyard, then made his way to a window located near the kitchen that somehow they never bothered to lock - whether they forgot or didn’t care, Theo didn’t have a clue.

Once he was done entering the house, he quietly made his way upstairs to check that Liam was asleep. He didn't even had to go all the way upstairs to hear Liam's snoring, which was a sign that it was all clear. 

Making his way to the kitchen once again, he opened the cabinets, checking for which non-perishable food he could  _ borrow  _ to last the rest of the week. He grabbed the peanut butter can, the entire bag of bread, several water bottles, and a bag of chips. He thought it was enough and was about to close the cabinet doors when he noticed the new unopened box of Liam’s favorite granola bars. Was it petty to take them? Yes, it was. Was he going to do so either way? Also correct.

See, for whatever reason Liam loved these things so much, Theo had no clue why. They weren’t even  _ that  _ great. But if there was any reason that would get Liam speaking to him regardless of the circumstances, it would be this. So he packed all of them but one.

Once he was done packing the supplies, he made his way upstairs to Liam’s room to grab some of his clothes, since after they decided on the bet he hadn’t even taken the time to go back and get them. He grabbed his stash of clothes, along with his pillow, and was making his way out of the room when he noticed how Liam had just basically dropped dead on the bed without even bothering to get in the covers, or even taking off his shoes.

Theo was almost sure Liam was going to end up sleeping past his alarm if he hadn't done so already today, so he grabbed Liam’s phone and set up five consecutive alarms with a ten-minute difference. Maybe he couldn’t be  _ there _ to wake up Liam as usual, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t  _ try  _ to.

Taking one last look at the mess that was the room - very fitting, just like Liam - he kind of smiled softly. Those kind of smiles that even if you were looking at the person you couldn’t really notice if they had been smiling. He made his way downstairs and walked out the front door this time, making sure to leave everything almost intact.

Once inside his truck, he decided to stay where he parked, since nobody actually lived on the house he had decided to park in front of, and the neighborhood was calm enough to not call the cops on him - or at least he hoped it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Denial at its finest coming from both of them, I wonder who'll admit to it first? [in Stiles' voice] place your bets.
> 
> Anyways, yes, Theo breaking in was petty at its finest, but it was for the sake of adding humor, since I didn't want the whole chapter to be sad, and also wanted them to interact with each other in some capacity.
> 
> Next chapter will hopefully be uploaded on Thursday!


	3. Day 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yesterday I stayed up a little bit late to keep writing this chapter because I was really inspired to write it, especially the aftermath of Theo stealing Liam's food, so here it is a day earlier!
> 
> Once again I cannot thank you enough guys for the comments and likes and the interest y'all have in this story, it warms my heart! 
> 
> With that said, hope you enjoy this chapter.

**DAY 2**

Liam was woken up by a loud ringing of an alarm coming from somewhere. Startled, he almost fell off his bed at the strange noise. He grabbed his phone to deactivate the alarm, only to find there were four more consecutive alarms programmed. He didn’t recall having set up any alarms the night before. As a matter of fact, he hadn’t bothered with anything at all to the point where he woke up feeling like he hadn’t truly rested, since he slept with the same clothes he had been wearing yesterday.

He found it weird, but he wasn’t going to think much of it. Maybe he had woken up in the middle of the night and had suddenly remembered to set an alarm. 

After taking a shower, he headed downstairs and made some breakfast for himself. He was almost ready to leave for school, backpack ready and all. He opened one of the cabinets to grab a bottle of water and a snack-

He stopped dead in his tracks as he analyzed the shelves. Food was missing. The water bottles were missing. Hell, even the bread was missing. He grabbed the box that had his granola bars and flipped its contents on the counter. One single bar was dropped.

Now, Liam could only possibly think of one person that had access to his house somehow, and who was capable of doing something like this. Same person he could not talk to for the rest of the week.

“Goddamn it, Theo!” he angrily grabbed the remaining granola bar, and headed towards the door, his heart rate had increased out of anger. He didn’t know what made him angrier: the fact that Theo had stolen his lunch for the entire week, or the fact that he couldn’t fight him over it. It was driving him crazy.

He was too mad, muttering curses under his breath, that when he walked down the street towards the bus stop he failed to notice the familiar blue pickup truck parked a few houses away from his. He also failed to notice the familiar boy in the driver’s seat, smirking, eating one of his granola bars.

Liam’s obliviousness to things sometimes really paid off for Theo’s amusement.

\---

First period consisted of Biology class, which Liam despised in any day, even more in a day when he’s already pissed off.

He sat on the very back row on his own, Mason and Corey occupying the table in front of him. Throughout the class, it seemed like Liam was invested in taking notes, or at least in writing something in his notebook, which made Mason curious.

“Wow, I’ve never seen you so invested in taking notes for Biology class,” Mason pointed out once the teacher had let them take a break to solve an activity.

“I’m not,” Liam sighed in defeat and put his notebook down on the table. Mason took it and saw a page that read ‘ _ Ways to get back at Theo’  _ written in bold letters, followed by a list of pros and cons. Mason tried not to laugh, but instead pretended to be confused.

“Why are you trying to get back at Theo? Aren’t you guys supposed to not be seeing each other?” Mason asked him.

“Yeah, we haven’t. Just because we aren’t seeing each other this week doesn’t mean I cannot think of ways to get back at him for stealing my food,” Liam bitterly said, snatching the notebook away from Mason’s hands, to scribble down another idea.

Mason looked at Corey with this knowingly look, his boyfriend just nodding in agreement. 

“Liam?” Mason started cautiously.

“What?” Liam replied dryly.

“Is it possible that maybe…” Mason continued, and Liam looked up, glaring at his best friend like he already knew what he was gonna say next. 

“That maybe what?” Liam continued with a low, warning voice.

“That maybe you miss him?” Mason finished off despite the warnings that told him Liam was angry. Both him and Corey looked at him like they already knew the answer but they were just waiting on him to admit it.

“Miss him?  _ MISS HIM?”  _ Liam let out a sarcastic laugh before he closed his notebook and was packing up his stuff. 

“I do NOT miss Theo.” 

His heart skipped a beat.

“I would  _ never _ miss him.” 

Another.

“Missing him would imply I care about him, which I clearly  _ DON’T. _ ” 

Another. 

Thankfully for all three of them the bell rang in that moment. 

“Wait Liam, don’t get mad at us, it was a simple question,” Mason tried to smooth out the situation but was met with an angry glare from Liam before he turned around and left the classroom.

Once outside, Liam tried to calm down his heart rate. Why did he got so angry all of a sudden if the accusations Mason said weren’t true? 

If Liam “missed” Theo, he would be weeping, lying down on a bench in the boys’ locker room, without any will to continue to do anything, just like when Hayden left. He isn’t, so  _ clearly  _ he didn’t miss him.

He just had to shut up about anything Theo related and needed to stop thinking about him. That’s it, that’s all he had to do so everyone else would stop thinking he cared about the chimera. It should be easy, right?

But why was it especially hard to stop thinking about him  _ right now  _ when Theo was the only person lately that was able to calm him down?

Maybe he didn’t miss him, but he needed him to some extent. Liam didn’t know which was worse.

\---

Theo’s morning had improved a lot compared to yesterday. It might not be comfortable to sleep in the truck, but a pillow and no cops knocking on his window had made a huge difference. Plus the bonus of seeing Liam after he found out about the food missing was priceless. He almost thought Liam was coming over to the truck to yell at him, but he didn’t even notice.

After Liam was gone, he moved his truck to the front of Liam’s house, parking there and he decided to go into the house. He wasn’t surprised at all that he hadn’t locked the windows, despite his breaking and entering from yesterday.

Once there, he made himself some breakfast and washed off his dishes only, in hopes Liam wouldn’t notice he had been there when he came back. He took a shower, and hung around Liam’s room while he still had time. 

Turning on the television as background noise, he started to go through the classified ads in a newspaper he found, looking for a job he could apply to. Even after this week was over, it would be nice to have something to do that didn’t involve Liam. He didn’t mind spending time with him, but this bet had made him realize he needed to find some other hobbies that didn’t involve the supernatural or just waiting to hang out with Liam.

After picking out some job offer ads, he called a few of them. Some weren’t hiring anymore, considering the newspaper was from last week. Some turned him down because ‘they weren’t hiring teenagers’, and only two asked him to come in for a job interview of some sort.

He went to the first one, it was on customer service for a local company. It required no experience, only good communication skills. After the interview was over, it didn’t take him long to realize he hadn’t gotten the job. All it took was for the woman to say ‘we will call you back’ and listen to her heartbeat skip to realize she was lying.

Next job offer was a barista job. It wasn’t an out of this world thing, but they accepted school dropouts, and he would get training. It was such a mundane job, but it was the closest thing he could get. He went in and the young man in charge explained the basics, and told him he would be hired, he just needed to fill out some forms first.

Theo started filling them out until he got to the part asking for address. What was he supposed to put there if he was living in his car? Liam’s address?

It all started to go downhill from there, up to the point where he didn’t know how else to fill it without making half of the stuff up, so while the man was out in the back of the store, he crumpled the forms, threw them in the trash, and walked out of the coffee shop.

Looking for a job had certainly been a failure, and a waste of time. Apparently getting a job was hard, but it was even harder when you were a barely-adult, currently homeless, high school dropout, who was unaccounted for an entirety of six months - what was he supposed to write? Location: Hell? - and also didn’t have any kind of references or family to back him up. His entire profile screamed highkey shady, and he would have to go a long way before he could get a somewhat decent job in this town.

\---

When Liam arrived home, the house smelled different. He couldn’t quite place the smell, but it was familiar, it was  _ nice. _

It was Theo.

Quickly, he ran upstairs to check his room - it all seemed just like he left it. He checked the other rooms, but he found them empty too. Liam ran downstairs and first thing he did was check the cabinets - no more food was missing. It all seemed like no one had been there, but the scent was strong, it’s almost like he had been there.

Or maybe it was just his mind playing tricks on him so he would finally admit that he mi-

Liam snapped out of his thoughts, and went to check every lock in the house. Every door, every window, he made sure it was locked, to prevent  _ anyone  _ (Theo) from entering his house without permission. 

He started to work on his homework, but he had an unsettling feeling in his stomach. A small part of him had been somewhat excited to see Theo - so he could kick his ass,  _ of course _ \- that it was a disappointment when he realized no one was there.

After a while, Liam decided to call Mason and invite him over to play some video games, so he could apologize for snapping at him during Biology class. 

“Hey Liam,” Mason answered, he seemed somewhat in a hurry.

“Hey Mason, um, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to come over for video game night?” Liam asked, completely pretending to have forgotten about the incident from earlier.

“I would, but I already had promised Corey that I would help him with an econ project that’s due this week…” there was a brief, awkward pause in between. 

“Oh,” Liam said, surprised. He could tell Mason wasn’t lying or avoiding him, but it stung a little bit anyway. “Yeah, yeah, sure, no problem.”

“Sorry man, another day maybe?” Mason said back.

“Yeah, sure, see you tomorrow,” Liam quickly said then hung up. He sighed in frustration, because he didn’t really want to spend the evening alone.

He gave up halfway through his homework and went to his room to play some videogames. He was halfway through an Exo Survival round of CoD when he got killed, and since he didn’t have anyone else on his team, it meant he had lost.

He threw his controller away in frustration. At least if Theo had been there, he’d have annoyed him until he would go back to revive Liam’s character in the game. But he wasn’t. And he’d have to deal with it.

Life sucked, so he went to bed early once again, phone forgotten on his nightstand, just like his will to enjoy things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Random fact: there are a few hints in this chapter that are going to connect to the last chapter of the story. Just thought I'd mention this, you'll see how it plays at the end.
> 
> Next chapter coming up late Thursday/early Friday hopefully!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gotta say that reading all of your comments with theories on what is going to happen next has become one of my highlights of my day, some even make me tear up because of the feels for these two ;_;
> 
> Anyways, without further ado, here it is!

**DAY 3**

If there was something that would cheer up Liam right now it was History class on Wednesdays. Liam loved History a  _ lot,  _ he found it so interesting to hear of past events and how people acted differently back then than they do right now. He was  _ that kid  _ in class that would never shut up whenever the teacher asked a question, although he had to learn to tone it down a little bit because he kept getting glares from the other students.

Wednesday was also the only day of the week when he didn’t have lacrosse practice. He always got to go home earlier than most days, looking forward to share what he had learned in History class that day with Theo.

See, it had become a habit by now, but it all started one day when Theo was a bit confused as to why Liam had arrived at 2 p.m. instead of his usual 5 p.m. He had meant to ask if ‘anything had happened during the day’ to make him arrive earlier, but instead it came out like “What, did you actually learn anything in school today?” and it was all it took for Liam to go on a 2-hour detailed review of whatever he had learned that day in History class.

The only reason Liam stopped talking was because his mom called them both to go downstairs because dinner was ready, and that’s when Liam realized he had rambled for too long, a little bit embarrassed about it.

“Sorry, I got a bit carried away,” Liam said, gathering his notes and his book, shoving them all in his backpack.

“Don’t be, actually. It’s impressive how much you know,” Theo said, and he had this look that actually was heartwarming, he couldn’t tell why. Probably one of the nicest looks Theo has ever given him since they met each other.

“It’s just that usually people shut me up within five minutes of me talking about History, so I have no one else to talk about it,” Liam said in a low voice, looking down.

“Hey, I don’t mind,” Theo raised his hands in a peaceful way, and Liam looked up at him, a kind of soft smile forming in his lips. They stared at each other for some brief seconds until Mrs. Geyer called them again.

“If all else fails, you could even end up being a History teacher, or that guy who always gets invited to trivia nights because somehow he knows all the answers,” Theo teased Liam when they were making their way downstairs, and Liam just playfully shoved at his arm, trying to pretend like he was insulted even though he actually wasn’t.

But that had been a while ago, and today as Liam arrived early to an empty home, he realized he wasn’t as excited as he was all Wednesdays. Something was missing.

He heat up some pizza leftovers from yesterday in the microwave, and took out his History book to do some reading for next class. There were several times when he would find a fun fact funny or interesting, and he would start speaking out loud with  _ “Hey Theo, did you know-” _ until he caught himself and realized he was speaking to an empty house.

He frowned and pulled out his phone. Going through his contacts, he scrolled down until he reached Theo’s number. He was half tempted to call him, but was unsure if he’d even pick up, or if they would be allowed to speak to each other because what exactly were the rules of the bet again? Did it include phone calls too? Liam’s memory had started to become a bit hazy.

He contemplated calling him for approximately 20 minutes, but then decided against it (he told himself it was because he was still mad over the stolen food), but deep down he knew he really wanted to call him,  _ badly _ .

\---

Theo’s current source of entertainment had been reduced to solving crosswords in newspapers. He had sunk this low because he was so bored he didn’t have anything productive to do. No job, no library card, no money to pay for Netflix or some streaming service (not that Theo really liked watching television or movies anyway, but desperate times…), no friends. It was quite tragic.

One of the words in the crossword had to do with a fact from the French revolution, and surprisingly he had known the word because he remembered Liam had explained this to him one time when he went on one of his History rambles. He smiled to himself as he wrote the word down.

After finishing the crossword, and with Liam on the back of his mind since it was Wednesday, he thought to himself it wouldn’t hurt to try to drive around his neighborhood. Maybe this time Liam would recognize his truck and would come and fight him over his granola bars.

So 2 p.m. came around, and Theo had parked once again a couple houses back from Liam’s. He was watching as Liam was walking down the street to his house, a smile on his face, he seemed happy. 

Theo felt two strange reactions in that moment: first, it weirdly warmed his heart seeing him smiling, he didn’t know why exactly. And second, it stung a little bit because it meant he was actually doing fine without him. Hell, he was probably doing a lot better without him. 

Unlike Theo, Liam actually had  _ friends,  _ other friends who were much nicer people than he ever was. Friends who didn’t annoy him on a daily basis. And seeing Liam smiling and somewhat relaxed meant he was just moving on to how his old life was, before Theo came and made a mess of everything.

To avoid being seen, because suddenly he didn’t want Liam to see him or anything, he drove away. He kept driving for a while, trying to clear his head. Trying to make his thoughts shut up.

_ What the fuck was he actually doing in Beacon Hills anyway?  _ Any person with self-preservation would have drove as far away as they could after everything he had been through. Dead family? Check. A city prone to evil supernatural creatures coming by every few months? Check. People dying? Check. People sending him to hell? Check. So why hasn’t he left? What kept him there?

He knew the answer very damn well, his mind torturing him a bit, in a mocking way. He felt as if all this time he kind of had been lying to himself, thinking that maybe after a while they could all just… forgive and forget all the evil shit he had done before. Scratch that, he didn’t actually mind the rest of the pack’s opinion. For all he cared, they could still threaten to kill him and he’d just roll his eyes and flip them off probably. He only cared actually for one person’s opinion only.

He wondered if he had always been this mess of a person, or if it was one of the side effects of being in hell. 

Feelings were shit. Getting feelings for someone is like getting the flu: you catch it unexpectedly and then it continues to fuck you up until you eventually accept you have them. Then proceeds to hurt, when the person you care for probably won’t give a damn if you’re in his life or not.

At least that’s the way he saw it. Feelings were nothing but an inconvenience. 

So, making up his mind after the downward spiral he had gone through in the span of a few hours, he decided to drive away. Drive as far as his truck would get him. When he was crossing the Beacon Hills limits, he allowed himself to admit that yes, he did miss Liam. He never said it out loud, he will probably get buried without having said it out loud, and hopefully after a while he could just bury that feeling down and forget this inconvenience ever happened. He would be giving Liam his life back in a way, and he could try and rebuild a life away from all the bullshit that’s been haunting him forever.

It wasn’t ideal, but it was the best for everyone involved. Or at least, that’s what he thought.

\---

After finishing his homework and helping Scott pack some stuff the alpha needed for when he moved away for college, night arrived and Liam was restless, lying in bed, his phone in hand.

He had tried to talk to Scott about his day, bringing up History casually. Scott was a nice person, so of course he tried to listen to Liam, but it didn’t feel the same. Besides, Liam had noticed that as soon as he started speaking about it, Malia had rolled her eyes and grunted quietly. 

He looked over at his phone, his screen showing Theo’s contact information. His thumb was ghosting over the number.  _ He was really losing it, wasn’t he?  _

“Wow, I need to get a life,” Liam said to himself, his phone almost dropped in his face but he managed to grab it quickly before it hit him. However, when he had grabbed it, he accidentally had clicked on Theo’s number, dialing him.

“Shit,” he muttered when he noticed it was calling. He didn’t hang up either way.

Phone kept ringing until it eventually sent him to voicemail. He frowned.  _ That’s… weird, Theo always picks up. _

_ Maybe he isn’t picking up to respect the bet,  _ Liam thought to himself then laughed because since when was Theo actually following the rules of the bet, when two days ago he had broken into his house to steal food?

He called again out of curiosity, but it still sent him to voicemail.

Liam was half worried, half confused. He didn’t know what to make of this. It was only 11:30, it wasn’t  _ that  _ late. Either way, he saw an opportunity to solve his problems.

He called again with the intent of leaving a voicemail.

“So hey, it’s me, Liam…” he started out weakly then cursed himself because  _ what the fuck was he doing.  _ “So maybe you’re not picking up because you’re asleep, or you’re staying away so we can win the bet… and I guess it’s fine. Even though you stole my food, asshole.”

He hung up on that note, but then realized he still wanted to say more things.

So, he called again, leaving a voicemail where he began telling Theo about his day at school. It was inconvenient that every two minutes it kept cutting him off, but he kept calling because he wasn’t done, and even if Theo didn’t listen to all the voicemails, he could at least say everything he had wanted to say. 

_ Well, almost everything. _

He had gone from covering his entire History class, to next week’s lesson, to ranting about how Malia couldn’t appreciate History, to talk about lacrosse from the past days.

Around the 39th message, his voice began to sound sleepy, leaving more silence gaps in between and yawning. 

“So I guess I should… go to sleep,” he said between yawns. “I’ve been late to school because I keep sleeping past my alarms. I guess I got used to having you around to wake me up.” 

He stopped talking abruptly as he realized what he had just said.  _ Shit. _

“N-not that I m-miss you annoying me until I wake up or whatever, because I do not,” if phones could pick up heartbeats then he was pretty sure he was toast. But thankfully they didn’t. He stayed in silence for the rest of the message until it hung up by itself. 

Liam wanted to send yet another voicemail to backtrack on what he had said. When he called again, he realized that Theo’s voicemail was actually full, so he couldn’t send anything else.

He put his phone far away from reach before he could do any more damage. Seriously, his phone provider should ban him from leaving a voicemail ever again. He burrowed his face in his pillow and forced himself to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The key to misunderstandings is always lack of communication, and also the mind can sometimes be our worst enemy when it comes to escalating situations where our perception is so off (like with Theo assuming that Liam was happy because he wasn't there, when in reality Liam had been smiling because he thought he was gonna go home and find Theo and talk to him about his day).
> 
> I got carried away a bit with the angst, I'm so sorry I hadn't planned for Theo's thoughts to be that sad until I re-read it and I was like "what the fuck did you just write" at myself haha. It was a necessary evil though, you'll see in the next chapters.
> 
> BUT! Good news is that I'm almost done with next chapter, so it'll be posted tomorrow!


	5. Day 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I just couldn't not update today because of the angst fest that was last chapter, I don't wanna be cruel. Hope you like this!

**DAY 4**

Liam didn’t start the day on the best terms. He slept past his alarm, again. He was late for pretty much everything, from school to lacrosse practice. It was as if he had woken up on the wrong side of the bed.

To top it all off, he hadn’t gotten any response from Theo. No calls, no text, _nothing._ It was radio silent. Liam was so embarrassed for leaving all those voicemails, because who in their right mind leaves 39 goddamn voicemails to _somebody_?! Oh yeah, that’s right, he does. He could’ve sworn that not even his mom had sent him that many back when he didn’t come home one day because he had been helping Scott. Sure, there had been lots of missed calls, and a missing person report to the police, but at most there had been six voicemails.

Once lacrosse practice was done, Liam was approached by Mason and Corey.

“Do you need a ride to Deaton’s clinic?” Corey asked Liam, who was a bit confused as to why he needed a ride there.

“You know, for the pack meeting today?” Mason followed up after seeing Liam’s confused expression.

“Oh!” Liam exclaimed, clearly he had forgotten today there was a pack meeting. Which also meant he was probably going to see Theo. He was probably going to laugh at him for the voicemails. _Shit._ “You know what, I was thinking maybe I can skip it? Since I have so much homework to do, I-I got stuff to do.”

“Liam, you can’t just not go. Scott is going to be leaving you in charge in a couple of weeks after he finally moves away for college, he’s gonna be worried if you don’t show up,” Mason tried to talk some sense into his best friend, and Liam was already mentally slapping himself for making everything awkward. He was going to have to face Theo either way.

“Is this because Theo is going to be there?” Corey blurted out, earning himself a death glare from Liam.

“No, it is not because of Theo!” Liam lied. Goddamn his heart for skipping a beat once again. “I could care less if he is there or not.”

\---

Clearly that sentence of ‘ _I could care less if he is there or not’_ was bullshit. Pack meeting had begun, and Theo wasn’t there. Liam would be lying if he said he wasn’t at least a bit worried.

Half an hour passed and the meeting was almost over. Liam looked like he was on the verge of running off because he reeked of anxiety. Stiles noticed this. He didn’t need to be a werewolf to notice when someone is anxious.

“Hey Liam, where’s your evil half?” Stiles teased, nudging Jackson on the side to make him pay attention to the conversation.

“How the hell am I supposed to know? I haven’t seen him the entire week,” Liam bitterly expressed, not bothering to look at either of them.

“Maybe he finally left Beacon Hills,” Stiles said, muttering under his breath a ‘ _thank God he did.’_ Liam glared at him.

“Maybe he died,” Malia added, a clear amused grin on her face.

“Malia, no, he isn’t dead. If there had been an attack, we would’ve known by now,” Scott suggested, not wanting to be in the conversation, but he noticed how Liam’s heart had picked up when she said that, so he had to involve himself to calm his beta down.

“Whoever attacked him could’ve done a good job at getting rid of the bo-”

“Maybe he left because he simply didn’t care,” Jackson blurted out, before Malia escalated the situation even more.

“Kinda like you did back then a couple of years ago, eh?” Stiles jabbed at Jackson, who only glared at him while smiling sarcastically.

Liam had gone from anxious to somewhat upset. It had been hard coming to terms with it, but yes, there was a possibility Jackson was right. Maybe Theo hadn’t cared enough to stay, maybe he had decided to skip town and never look back.

He zoned out while the rest of the pack kept engaging in conversations; Stiles and Jackson insulting one another while Lydia just rolled her eyes. Malia and Scott discussing what their plans were for dinner, and Mason and Corey were talking about something back in the corner.

There was an overwhelming want to scream that was bubbling up inside of Liam, so to not create a scene he slipped out of the clinic, being careful to not be noticed.

As he walked around, Liam realized that he had taken Theo’s company for granted. He kinda had just assumed that he was never going to leave, and that most likely he would have to put up with the giant asshole who lived in his room and slept in a poorly made makeshift bed for years.

He had assumed that every time he made a poorly thought-out, life-threatening choice, Theo would be there to help him out. He had been relying on Theo for so many things, and he hadn’t even admitted it. He hadn’t admitted it because that would mean a change in their dynamic, and he didn’t want that.

_But he missed the stupid asshole. He missed him a lot._

He hadn’t let himself admit to it because that would imply he cared about him. Which he does, he realized back then when Malia had been talking about how Theo could be dead. He cared whether the chimera lived or died.

It was all snark and punches until this stupid bet had brought them apart and made him face his feelings. He hated Stiles and Jackson for this. He hated Theo for agreeing to it. He hated _himself_ for agreeing to it.

He ended up in a gas station, and went in to buy some snacks. He bought three boxes of his favorite granola bars. The cashier looked at him with pity but didn’t say anything either way. _Did he really look that upset?_

When Liam got home, he threw the boxes in the counter, opening one and grabbing some of the bars. Before going upstairs, he unlocked the windows, specifically the one that he suspected Theo had used to break into his house. Hoping that, maybe, he’d break in again and steal the other boxes again.

\---

Theo had gotten stuck in a part of a small town where there was no phone signal, and he had run out of gas. He already regretted leaving, and he had been trying to get someone to spare him some gas so he could return to Beacon Hills.

He cursed himself for his rash decision. It had seemed easy at the beginning, but now he realized it wasn’t a well-thought plan because he was fucking _broke._ Liam had really been rubbing off on him with his bad-decision making plans.

Around evening that day, an old couple finally took mercy on him and gave him some gas for his truck. Theo was so relieved, he had already accepted for a while the fact that he would have to leave his truck there, but thankfully it didn’t get to that.

He stopped at a nearby gas station to refill on more gas. The old couple had been kind enough to give him a $50 because he clearly was in such a bad shape, it seemed like he hadn’t eaten in days.

After he finished putting gas on the truck, he turned on his phone to see what time it was. First thing it showed was that he had 41 missed calls and 39 voicemails.

“The fuck…” he muttered to himself, confused because _who in the hell wanted to talk to him so badly?_ He thought it was a phone glitch.

He called his voicemail and retrieved his messages. He pressed play on the first one.

_“So hey, it’s me, Liam… so maybe you’re not picking up because you’re asleep, or you’re staying away so we can win the bet… and I guess it’s fine. Even though you stole my food, asshole.”_

He chuckled. He didn’t know exactly what had possessed Liam to send him this many voicemails, but in a way he was glad he did.

On his drive back to Beacon Hills, he kept listening to the rest of the voicemails. He could already picture Liam smiling like he did when he was talking about History. It wasn’t the same as actually being there, but he listened anyway.

_“So I guess I should… go to sleep. I’ve been late to school because I keep sleeping past my alarms.”_

“I’m not even shocked, dumbass,” Theo chuckled, it was just typical Liam.

_“I guess I got used to having you around to wake me up.”_

Well, that is certainly something Theo hadn’t been expecting. He looked at his phone like suddenly it had spoken in a language he didn’t understand. _Did Liam had just admitted that he mis-_

_“N-not that I m-miss you annoying me until I wake up or whatever, because I do not.”_

Theo heard his wavering voice very damn well along with that unmistakable tone of when Liam realized he had fucked up and tried to cover stuff up with a lie, but failed in the process. He rolled his eyes.

If he had any money to spare, he’d bet five bucks that Liam had at least thought of trying to figure out how to delete a voicemail you left on accident in someone else’s phone.

Instead of answering back with a voicemail, Theo thought it was a better idea to pay Liam a visit tomorrow, bet be damned and all. They had technically broken it a long time ago, although if they were smart enough, maybe they could fool the rest of the pack that they didn’t break it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I almost just did all of this chapter in Liam's point of view, but then decided to add Theo's too to not be cruel because me not saying why Theo didn't pick up the phone was just me being an extra dramatic person.
> 
> ALSO for the ones that bet on who would admit first: technically, Theo was the first to break denial and admit to himself he missed Liam, then later Liam did admit to himself. But the real question here is who would admit it to the other first?
> 
> Anyways, the ending to this story is already written and finished! It has been since like chapter 2-3, I'm just wondering whether to post it tomorrow or Monday, so let me know which you prefer.


	6. Chapter 6

**DAY 5**

It felt like  déjà vu somehow. Months ago he had been in a similar situation, not having the will to do anything else except for staying home and lying in bed, possibly playing video games, surely avoiding everyone else. That had been when Hayden had moved away.

Liam hated himself because he took it too hard when people he cared for left. He shouldn’t even be  _ that  _ hurt for crying out loud, he and Theo had only been friends for a while, but as soon as he had accepted to himself that yes, he missed Theo, it seemed like something inside him broke.

He wasn’t answering any calls, though he only checked to see who it was in hopes that maybe Theo had called. He hadn’t. He checked the counter and found the boxes of granola bars intact. No one had broken in.

Liam only replied to Mason’s text asking  _ ‘are you okay? why did you skip school?’ _ with a thumbs up emoji, not wanting to elaborate. He just wanted to be left alone. He figured he’d be in a better mood tomorrow.

His day had only progressed into a day from hell. It was Friday night and he was considering going to sleep at freaking eight o’clock. He had turned off his lights and everything, flopping down on his bed.

Not five minutes later after that, he heard the sound of a car pulling up and parking in front of his house. He got weirded out, because his parents weren’t supposed to be there until Sunday.

Frowning and annoyed, he stood up to take a look at his window, only to find that familiar blue pickup truck he knew so goddamn well parked in front of his house. Liam smiled to himself.

He waited a few minutes for Theo to get out of his truck and walk over to his house, wanting him to break the bet first. But he didn’t. In fact, he had just killed the engine, no lights, no anything, but he seemed to be staying in the car.

After half an hour of waiting, Liam got truly impatient and angry.  _ Was Theo thinking of using Liam’s house as free parking only? _ He wouldn’t let him, not if he could do something about it.

\---

Theo was rudely woken up by the sound of something hitting his windshield.  _ Loudly. _

“What the hell?” he semi-whispers as he blinks his eyes and realizes that he’s being attacked with granola bars - not just any bars, but Liam’s favorites. He was throwing them down from his window, his aiming clearly excelling thanks to lacrosse plus werewolf skills combined.

“Can you stop throwing these things at my truck?” Theo yelled as he snuck his head out of the passenger window, but Liam didn’t listen, instead throwing another heavier object that landed on the hood of his truck, making the car alarm go off. 

“You stole my food!  _ Again! _ ” Liam resorted back to throwing another granola bar, aiming it this time at Theo’s face, but since the distance was too far he failed. “Asshole!”

“It’s just food Liam! Your mom re-stocks it!” Theo yelled back. Liam seemed to have run out of things to throw at him.

“You know what? I hate you!” Liam yelled out without any further explanation. He seemed angry for whatever reason Theo couldn’t place.

“Oh yeah? Care to elaborate on that?” Theo provoked. 

Liam furiously closed his bedroom window, and Theo thought he probably would ignore him for the rest of the night. But to his surprise, his front door opened all of a sudden and there was Liam, walking towards the truck’s direction, his lacrosse stick in hand, gripped tight.

“Get off my driveway!” Liam yelled, starting to aim his lacrosse stick. Theo quickly ignited the truck and put it in reverse, parking abruptly in the neighbor’s space. 

“There. I am not parked in your driveway, you cannot kick me out legally.”

There was a fine line to Liam’s patience, and Theo was pushing it.

“Oh my God, you are insufferable! I hate you so much!” Liam yelled in frustration while throwing down his lacrosse stick.

“Breaking news, Liam,” Theo rolled his eyes because he was used to Liam saying that to him. And even though he was really angry right now, he didn’t seem like he meant it.

“Because of you I was late for school every single day this week! Except for Tuesday, but that doesn’t count! I slept through my alarms, I had nothing to eat at school-”

“Oh yeah, you’re right! Satan personally asked me to become your personal tormentor for the week, and I single handedly managed to unleash hell upon you without having to interact with you at all. I did  _ all _ that!” Theo said, sarcasm rolling off in waves.

“And you know what I hate the most?!” Liam continued on his rant, not having time for Theo’s sarcasm. “That you had me worried sick! And I missed you!”

Theo looked once again shocked at the revelation. He never  _ ever  _ thought he’d hear those words coming from Liam.

“What did you say?” Theo said, tone calmer now while getting out of his truck and slowly walking towards Liam.

“I SAID  _ I MISSED YOU _ , YOU STUPID ASSHOLE!” Liam yelled one last time, louder. Tears had started forming out in his eyes, most likely out of anger. He kind of gave up on standing and decided to sit down in the grass, nearby to where he had dropped his lacrosse stick. Theo sat next to him after a couple of seconds.

“Being apart made me realize that no matter how annoying you can be, I still miss you anyway. Stiles was right, I hadn’t realized how much time we had been spending together lately until you weren’t there,” Liam was partially calmer, the anger that was once there replaced by another emotion Theo hadn’t seen in Liam before.

“Well, that’s a first,” Theo deadpanned, and it only earned him a punch in the nose,  _ hard. _

“Ow! The hell was that for?!” Theo exclaimed while Liam wiped off the blood on his hand with his own shirt.

“That’s for making me think you were dead.”

“Why would I be dead? This may come as a shock to you, but when I’m not risking my life to save you, I actually know how to take care of myself,” Theo had barely finished saying that when he got yet another punch to the face. 

After Theo had recovered from said punch, he took the opportunity to tackle Liam into the grass, both of them attempting to fight one another without really doing much, until Liam got the upper hand and pinned Theo to the ground.

“Besides, you could’ve called,” Liam said between panting breaths. His hair was disheveled, some strands were brushing his eyes. Theo started at Liam for a moment with a curious look on his face.

“Oh yeah, like you did with your 39 voicemails?” It took Liam off guard.

“You heard them all?” Liam barely finished saying before Theo had taken the opportunity to switch their positions, now him being the one pinning Liam to the ground, straddling him.

“Out of curiosity. I mean, waking up to 41 missed calls and 39 voicemails is not really a usual thing, you know,” Theo snarked back.

In that moment, Liam had stopped fighting to get out of Theo’s grip, but even though he was calming down, he still tensed underneath Theo’s body. The taller boy noticed this but didn’t point it out, mostly because he didn’t want Liam to get pissed off again. 

He got up and extended a hand so Liam could get up. After that, they both sat together on the grass again like they had before Liam started to punch him.

“I thought you said you had better things to do than hanging out with some loser like me,” Liam was the first to break the silence.

“I thought you said you weren’t gonna miss me, the opposite really.”

“Well, things change, get over yourself,” Liam looked down as he felt Theo’s stare piercing through him, making his heart skip a beat.

So here they were, nearing ten o’clock on a Friday night, sitting on the grass, a mess of granola bars and an unopened water bottle apparently scattered around Theo’s truck. Both with a disheveled appearance, and Theo with somewhat of a bloody nose. It seemed like they have gone back to normal.

“Hey, wanna hear a secret?” Theo started, picking up one of the granola bars that was nearby. “I really don’t like these. I mostly eat them all just to annoy you.”

Liam stared at him with an offended look on his face. “You are a dick.”

“But you missed me, though,” it seemed like Theo was going to hold that over his head for at least a while, but at this point it didn’t matter to Liam. He was relieved that Theo was back and he wouldn’t change it for anything.

\---

Later that night, there was a knock on the door. The colors of police sirens could be seen through the windows of Liam’s house, and both boys stared at each other in confusion. Nonetheless, Liam opened the door while Theo stood on the other side of it, in case Liam needed backup.

Standing on his doorway was no other than the Sheriff with a tired look on his face. 

“Liam, are your parents or any other adult home?” the Sheriff asked, and Liam shrugged, looking at Theo nervously until the chimera moved from behind the door to stand next to Liam.

“What seems to be the problem?” Theo politely asked in a tone that suggested they had done nothing wrong.

“There were some disturbance complaints from some neighbors, and they said it came from your house. Is everything alright in here?” the Sheriff took out a flashlight, pointing it at the inside of the house, looking for signs of trouble.

“There might have been a mild discussion, but nothing worth of a complaint,” Liam pointed out while Theo just rolled his eyes.

“Is this- is this some kind of werewolves type of thing?” Sheriff sighed, and before Liam could start going on a ramble to excuse himself, he stopped him. “You know what, I don’t wanna know. Just- be quiet and let people sleep.”

Liam sighed of relief as the Sheriff was walking back to his car, but tensed immediately again when he saw Stiles, standing right there and then in front of the police car, in company of none other than Jackson, both with smirks on their faces.

They both walked up to Liam’s front porch but didn’t say anything, just looked at each other knowingly like they were just waiting for the moment to start teasing them about how they were a bunch of losers.

“Spit it out, Stiles,” Liam couldn’t take it anymore, the sooner the mocking was over, the better. 

“Hey Stiles, looks like we won after all. These two couldn’t even make it through the end of day five,” Jackson said without losing his smug look, Stiles cracking up in laughter.

“And you know what’s even funnier? The neighbor’s complaints,” in that moment, Stiles pulled out a sheet of paper from his pocket, getting ready to read it. 

“It says here:  _ Call for a disturbance complaint, two young men, ages ranging from 17 to 19, were loudly yelling at each other. The one living in the house was throwing granola bars or something at the other’s truck- yes, a Toyota Tacoma blue pickup truck. It seemed like they had been going through a breakup of some sort, seems like teenage angst to me. Youths these days, _ ” by the end of it, both Stiles and Jackson were laughing obnoxiously, while Liam was red with embarrassment.

“Give me that,” Liam took the report from Stiles’ hands and crumpled it up, shoving it in one of his pockets.

“Hey Theo, enlighten me here,” Stiles began saying after he composed himself from laughing. “Why did you have your voicemail full? We tried to call you on Thursday after you didn’t show up to the pack meeting, because little beta here was freaking out.”

“My voicemail isn’t any of your business,” Theo crossed his arms and stood taller, while Liam just covered his face with his hands to not show further embarrassment. He wished a hole would open up right there and then so he could shove Stiles and Jackson there, or jump himself in it and never get out again.

To Liam’s disgrace, Jackson picked up on this. “Did you call him and left him enough messages that it filled up his voicemail? Oh my God.”

And the laughter continued. Liam was already getting ready to smack down the grins from their stupid faces when Theo caught him right before he launched himself at them, pushing him behind and taking lead of the conversation.

“Hey Stiles enlighten me here, didn’t you supposedly hate him because he dated your girlfriend a while ago?” Theo tried to change the topic to take away the attention from them, for Liam’s sake mostly.

It seemed to work, because it sobered them up enough to stop laughing, Stiles beginning with  _ ‘why did you have to bring that up’  _ and Jackson with a  _ ‘how did you know?’ _

“Well of course I hate him, I have  _ reasons, _ ” Stiles started, seeming to have moved on from teasing Theo and Liam onto his petty problems with Jackson.

“Oh yeah, really? I can’t stand you either, that’s never changed,” Jackson retorted as Stiles started calling him a lizard. Theo smirked at both of them. 

“Woah, as much as we would like to hear both of you insult one another, please get off  _ our  _ property, we don’t want any more disturbances around here. Goodnight,” Theo sarcastically said while he closed the door on both of their faces.

“ _ Our  _ property?” was the first thing that came out of Liam’s mouth once the door had been closed.

“Well yeah, I live here, don’t I?” Theo said as he made his way to the kitchen to get food.

“You don’t pay any rent!” Liam said, his tone getting a bit higher.

“Well, in that case I guess I better pack up some food and leave again,” Theo teased him for a bit, taking a box of cereal in one hand and staring off at Liam,  _ daring  _ him to do something.

He didn’t know if it was the tension of the moment, or the way Theo was looking at him  _ like that,  _ or the fact that maybe he had missed him  _ too much _ , but it is safe to say that Liam did not quite think it through as he slammed Theo against the closed cabinet door and kissed him.

Theo, getting caught off guard once again by Liam (first the punch, now the kiss), dropped the cereal box, making a mess in the kitchen floor, but he kissed him back. 

“Well, that’s a better technique to catch someone off guard than by punching them,” Theo snarked once they broke apart. However, he still remained pinned to the cabinet door, Liam didn’t want to let him go.

“You’re not leaving with my food again,” Liam replied at him, as if completely ignoring the fact that they had been kissing merely seconds ago, like it was something they did usually. He softened the grip he had on Theo, who had a smirk on his face.

“I missed you too by the way,” Theo said smugly while Liam made his way upstairs, trying to cover up the way his betraying heart had picked up a bit at hearing Theo say those words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I'm sitting here, a bit emotional over the fact that this fic is done and that I did manage to finish it, I want to thank every single one of you who took the time to read it, give kudos, comment. And if it ever made any of you smile a little bit, believe me when I say I'm truly happy it did.
> 
> Phew, now with that said, this chapter had been mostly written since the very beginning. Yesterday I added an extra scene because I got carried away with revising it, and I wasn't ready to let go haha. But all things have to come to an end before they go off track, right?
> 
> Two things now: I'm thinking of maaaaybe writing a companion oneshot to this fic, but I'm still not sure whether to write it or not. It'd be set two days after the ending of this fic, and yes it'd involve thiam, but it'd also involve more of Stiles and Jackson. Reason I say I still don't know if to write it is because I might've covered it enough in this chapter's ending. But who knows what happens.
> 
> Second, I am going to be writing another multi chapter thiam fic, it's in the works but I wanted first to finish this fic, so in case you're looking for something similar in terms of writing to this, then that fic is for you.
> 
> Anyway, thank you so much again for reading, and hope everyone has a happy Sunday and that you enjoy the teen wolf finale!
> 
> -Alejandra


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